Winchester’s Blind Side Ammunition Will Have Waterfowlers Waiting Impatiently for Fall (Video)

We saw some things at the Winchester Ammunition booth that really got our back legs thumping on the floor. In a sea of tweaks and makeovers, Winchester currently gets the crown for ingenuity with their new Blind Side shotgun shells. And unlike the movie, which we found overblown and glib, this Blind Side stands up to the hype.

Winchester’s Ben Frank called it hex-shot and it’s a radical alternative to traditional steel pellets particularly for waterfowl hunters. “Flattened” sides means you can line pellets up against one another which means you can increase the packing density of the shot in the shell which means you can throw more lead on target. The extra space also allows for a cushion wad that Winchester claims increases velocity from about 1300 fps in a standard to 1400 fps and the “flat” sided blunt force trauma inducing pellets bring considerably more punch to the party.

The million-dollar question you’re probably asking yourself right now is, “what is this going to do to my shot pattern?” That’s why I’ve been putting “flat” in quotes all this time; there’s enough of a radius on these pellets that they act like pretty much like round balls in flight. In addition to that, Winchester drew up a diamond cut wad. When this wad deploys, the shot funnels through the mouth and keeps the pattern tighter for longer.